Sensory deprivation and its fearsome effects

Sensory deprivation, particularly over a period of more than 48 hours, has major effects on perception, cognition, and emotions. It has been proven that social deprivation has very similar effects.

The first studies on sensory deprivation date back to the 1950s., although it is possible that there were secret investigations prior to that decade. The first experiments with volunteers were carried out at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada.

In its most basic sense, Sensory deprivation has to do with the partial or total restriction of stimuli , applied to one or more senses. Prevent vision, hearing, touch or everything at the same time. These types of practices have been used for therapeutic research purposes and as a method of torture.

Unfortunately it was that last use that sparked interest in sensory deprivation. After the Second World War it was reported that prisoners were able to confess without being beaten. It was enough to deprive his senses of the stimuli of the environment and then great changes occurred in his will.

“There are five entry routes to the brain, only five. Everything a child learns in his life is learned through these five ways. He can see it, hear it, touch it, taste it and smell it. Everything that Leonardo da Vinci learned, he learned in these five ways”.

-Glenn Doman-

Experiment conditions

In principle, basically three types of experimental conditions were used to study sensory deprivation.at least in the known studies.

The first is the situation of Bexton, Heron and Scott, which dates back to 1954. The second, that of Wexler, Mendelson, Liederman and Solomon, from 1958. And the third is the situation of Shurley, from 1960. Let’s see what each of them consists of.:

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First situation. There is no total sensory deprivation. He volunteer lies on a bed, inside a bright and isolated room. She wears dark glasses, gloves and some cardboard capsules in her hands. It remains like this for two to six days. Second situation. The volunteer lies on a mattress that is inside a capsule that limits his movements. He is in a room with bare walls and minimal light. It remains like this for up to 36 hours. Third situation. The volunteer immerses himself in a water tank, completely naked. He wears a mask that allows him to breathe, but not see or hear anything. She does not touch the bottom of the tank. She stays like that until she resists him.

Sensory deprivation and perceptual processes

The experiments carried out evaluated, first of all, whether these conditions altered perceptual processes. They concluded yes, and in a very noticeable way. There is, above all, major visual disturbances . The volunteer sees that static objects move and change size and shape.

They get to see that the walls move and that the tables walk. There is also greater visual sensitivity, but after several days, stimuli are perceived more slowly. A straight line comes to look like an “S”. Other hallucinations also occur.

In addition, general disorientation occurs in touch and the perception of time and space. In one of the experiments it was shown that the effects of social isolation are similar to those of sensory deprivation.

Effects on the cognitive level

Many of the volunteers indicated that they wanted to take advantage of the experiment to press on personal problems to which they had not been able to dedicate time. At first they did, but As the hours passed, it became increasingly difficult to concentrate on his thoughts.. After a certain time, they were not even able to count to 30.

Some interesting conclusions

To put it in simple terms, what all these experiments proved is that Through sensory deprivation it is possible to induce states of pseudopsychosis. That is, a temporary psychosis. It is said to be “pseudo” because once the experiment is over and the person returns to their normal life, they also recover all their usual functions.

One of the most interesting results was to verify that while hallucinations occur in so-called “normal” people during sensory deprivation, In those diagnosed with schizophrenia, these hallucinations tend to disappear..

In the same way, it was proven that the personality of each individual is decisive in the way they experience sensory deprivation. All the volunteers make efforts to adapt to the conditions, but a good part of them tend to remember the past and go into depression.. Almost everyone becomes much more suggestible and this leads to the effects of psychological torture being deeper, just like those of psychological therapy.